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Olivia Hu, Head of Autonomous Trucking, Uber Freight joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how autonomous trucking is going to complement and accelerate the growth of Uber Freight's $18 billion of freight under management platform. The conversation begins with Olivia discussing the current state of the autonomous trucking industry. The autonomous trucking industry right now is just at this very exciting moment, when its going from purely a technology and R&D pilot or project to let's look at go to market. What is the long-term strategy? How do we bring different ecosystem players from OEMs, Tier 1s, autonomous trucking developers, maintenance providers, fleets, shippers, networks like ourselves all together to start planing that long-term commercialization strategy? – Olivia HuCollectivity the autonomous trucking industry is preparing for the next phase — commercialization. When commercialization begins in earnest, Uber Freight stands to benefit as they will be the platform that connects the autonomous trucking companies with the freight. The first autonomous trucking lanes to come online will be in the Texas Triangle, from Dallas/Fort Worth to Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth to El Paso. These lanes will be used to learn how autonomous trucks operate in a commercial environment and what the operations will look like when at scale. When autonomous trucks are operating at scale, the industry will have to build and maintain public trust. One of the best ways in our opinion to build public trust is to host an “Autonomous Trucking Grocery Store Day” where everything in the store is 20% off for one-day because it was delivered by an autonomous truck. Autonomous Trucking Grocery Store Daydemonstrates to the public the positive economic that autonomous trucks will have on the cost of living as they suffer under high inflation. As it relates to professional drivers, fleets and shippers, Uber Freight is also working to build trust and educate them about how autonomous trucks could fit into and compliment their existing operations. For me, what's most important about building trust is being very transparent, honest and giving them the time to ask questions. – Olivia HuWhen Uber Freight brings autonomous trucking partners onto the platform they engage in a KYC process (Know Your Customer) that evaluates the company's safety framework including the safety culture, technical capabilities, leadership team and the go-to-market strategy. We think having the right go-to-market strategy will be really critical and that includes working with other ecosystem players like OEMs, like ourselves, network providers, shippers and fleets. – Olivia HuUber Freight's KYC policy was developed and implemented to limit the potential risks that might arise if and when regulation takes hold in the industry. Today, Uber Freight has partnerships with Aurora and Waabi and previously had a partnership with Waymo Via prior to the division being shutdown. In the future, Uber Freight will look to add more partners to the platform, but they will not partner with every autonomous trucking company.We only partner if it makes sense. If we truly believe that they have a safe reliable product with a long-term strategy that is the right commercial application for our customers. – Olivia HuThe right long-term strategy is one that is grounded in economics that enables pricing power. Uber Freight's Insights AI tool gives their customers to optimize their operations, pricing structure and what lanes make the most sense to deploy autonomous trucks.Wrapping up the conversation, Olivia discusses the role the Uber Freight will play as autonomous trucking scales. Recorded on Thursday, November 30, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles and logistics. The company has three businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor's Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy Podcast and The Road to Autonomy's This Week In The Index; and The Road to Autonomy Research and Consulting Services.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a repost of Episode 158, originally aired on June 4, 2023. This conversation was the 5th most popular Future of Mobility episode in 2023. ... Francesca Favarò is the Lead for the Safety Best Practices team at Waymo, where she coordinates external engagement with standards developing organizations Key topics in this conversation include: The absence of unreasonable risk for automated driving systems Waymo's layered approach to safety, including hardware, the ADS behavioral layer, and operations The dynamic approach to safety Waymo's credible approach to safety The importance of collaboration and a common language amongst the automated driving community IEEE Std 2846 and reasonably foreseeable behaviors of other road users Links: Show notes: ⁠http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/francesafavaro⁠ ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/ffavaro3/⁠  Waymo's safety page: ⁠https://waymo.com/safety/⁠ Waymo's safety case whitepaper: ⁠https://storage.googleapis.com/waymo-uploads/files/documents/safety/Waymo%20Safety%20Case%20Approach.pdf⁠) Francesca's Bio: Francesca Favarò is the Lead for the Safety Best Practices team at Waymo, where she coordinates external engagement with standards developing organizations. Prior to joining Waymo in 2020, she was an Associate Professor at San Jose State University's Department of Aviation and Technology and a Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute. Francesca earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, and received her M.S. in Space Engineering and B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. About Waymo: Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they're going. Since our start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has been focused on building, deploying, and commercializing the World's Most Experienced Driver™ technology to improve the world's access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, the world's first fully autonomous ride-hailing service, as well as Waymo Via, our trucking and local delivery service. To date, Waymo has autonomously driven tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions of miles in simulation, across 13+ U.S. states Future of Mobility: The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, effective, and accessible mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields. ⁠linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/⁠ ⁠brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

Alan Ohnsman, Senior Editor, Forbes joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Gatik and the road to profitable autonomy. The conversation begins with Alan and Grayson discussing AB 316 — the future of autonomous trucking in California. The State wants to support the tech and get it out there, and sees the benefits of that. But at the same time you have active opposition from a very powerful labor group that represents a lot of truckers in the State of California. – Alan OhnsmanThe conversation expands from policy to the future of AI and Gatik, a middle-mile autonomous trucking start-up that is on the road to profitable autonomy. Gatik is a company that did not raise billions of dollars, and Gatik did not come out of the gate saying were going to use autonomy for everything. We are going to do robotaxi, we are going to do trucking, we are going to do food deliveries, you name it, we are going to do it. They focused on one thing — middle-mile delivery from a distribution center to a large retail store, that's it. Nothing else. – Alan OhnsmanCompared to their peers that have raised billions in capital, Gatik has raised a mere modest $120 million. To achieve their goals, the company does not need billions as they are highly disciplined when it comes to operating the business. For every contract that Gatik signs with a customer, each vehicle that goes into service is contractually guaranteed revenue of $200,000 per year. For every 100 vehicles the company puts into service, the company will generate $20 million in yearly revenue. At this time, Gatik currently has 50 vehicles in service, generating $10 million in yearly revenue. Gatik is forecasting that the company could potentially be profitable within as little as two to three years (2025-2026). As the company ramps up towards profitability, they are going to gradually start expanding to highway driving in addition to city streets. Their goal is to overtime, they will move into highway trucking. They will move into Class-8 trucking, they will move into other types of delivery services that they are not doing now, and it's going to be this gradual evolution of the business. All of it is premised on the fact that it has to a revenue generator. – Alan OhnsmanLooking to the future, Gatik will not explore a potential IPO until the company is profitable on a GAAP basis. Rounding out the conversation, Grayson and Alan discuss the autonomous trucking industry as a whole and the Waymo Via shutdown. Wrapping up the conversation, Grayson and Alan discuss licensing and the future of Zoox.Chapters:0:00 The Road to Autonomy Index0:56 The Road to Autonomy Introduction 1:23 AB 316 and Autonomous Trucks in California 6:01 AI and the Push Back from Unions 10:39 Gatik and The Road to Profitable Autonomy42:58 Licensing the Waymo Driver 45:16 Future of Zoox?50:10 Future of Autonomy Recorded on Monday, August 28, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles and logistics. The company has three businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor's Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy Podcast and The Road to Autonomy's This Week In The Index; and The Road to Autonomy Research and Consulting Services.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chuck Price, President, AI Kinetics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the shutdown of Waymo Via and what it means for the development of the universal driver. The conversation begins with Chuck sharing his thoughts on the current state of the autonomous trucking industry.We are going through change. What we're seeing is the early phase of this development which was largely science doing science, now moving to doing engineering and commercialization. Some of the companies that have been involved in this thought ahead for that and are prepared and others are struggling or have struggled. What we are seeing is a consolidation and some changes in strategy that I think are normal and healthy for an industry as complex as this. – Chuck PriceThe consolidation currently occurring in the autonomous trucking industry is healthy — the market is functioning properly. On Wednesday, July 26th, Alphabet announced Waymo will be shutting down their autonomous trucking division — Waymo Via. While this may have come as a surprise to many, there were rumors in the market and public statements by Alphabet on earnings calls that laid the foundation for this announcement. Waymo did the right thing for a lot of reasons. – Chuck PriceBy shutting down Waymo Via, Waymo is now going to focus exclusively on their robotaxi business — Waymo One. As Mr. Price stated, this is indeed the right thing for Waymo to do as they are in a head-to-head competition with Cruise. Cruise is a formidable opponent with the resources to compete. Not to mention, Cruise is currently expanding at a much more rapid pace than Waymo. Cruise is in the driver's seat, while Waymo follows behind. From a technical perspective, was this an admission by Waymo that the Universal Driver did not work as they expected? Or is this more inancial discipline coming from Waymo as the division will have a new de facto CEO on September 1st — Ruth Porat, President & Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet. In her new role Ms. Porat will be responsible for investments in Alphabet's “Other Bets”. To further streamline the business and appease Wall Street, could Ms. Porat look to license the Waymo driver to global OEMs? Or raise additional capital outside by collateralizing Waymo's IP? Aurora Innovation with 1,450 patents related to autonomy recently raised $820 million in new capital. I am confident that the formal IP developed by Aurora gave them a huge advantage when they went to raise money, and without that they probably would not have been able to raise. – Chuck PriceEven though Aurora recently raised $820 million in new capital, the company has a cash burn rate of $45.3 million a month. It's expensive to operate, Aurora. With Waymo signaling that the Universal Driver did not work, Aurora continues ahead with developing their version of the Universal Driver. Would Aurora be wise to shut down their passenger car business and focus solely on autonomous trucking? This decision would allow Aurora to streamline their business and lower their cash burn rate — the economics point the way forward. But the question remains, what path will Aurora choose as the company matures and grows?I haven't seen a Universal Virtual Driver yet, but I have seen focused drivers come to fruition. We've seen cars that are now self-driving without safety drivers. We've seen trucks that are self-driving without safety drivers. Both have been achieved. The science is done for those specific use cases. – Chuck PriceTo scale an autonomous trucking startup, the startup has to have a production relationship with a truck OEM. To achieve this relationship, the autonomous trucking startup will have to commit $50 to $100 million to the relationship.Wrapping up the conversation, Chuck shares his thoughts on how he sees the autonomous trucking industry evolving over the next five years.Follow The Road To Autonomy on Apple PodcastsFollow The Road to Autonomy on Spotify Follow The Road To Autonomy on LinkedInFollow The Road To Autonomy on TwitterRecorded on Tuesday, August 1, 2023See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Francesca Favarò is the Lead for the Safety Best Practices team at Waymo, where she coordinates external engagement with standards developing organizations Key topics in this conversation include: The absence of unreasonable risk for automated driving systems Waymo's layered approach to safety, including hardware, the ADS behavioral layer, and operations The dynamic approach to safety Waymo's credible approach to safety The importance of collaboration and a common language amongst the automated driving community IEEE Std 2846 and reasonably foreseeable behaviors of other road users Links: ● Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/francesafavaro ● https://www.linkedin.com/in/ffavaro3/  ● Waymo's safety page: https://waymo.com/safety/ ● Waymo's safety case whitepaper: https://storage.googleapis.com/waymo-uploads/files/documents/safety/Waymo%20Safety%20Case%20Approach.pdf) Francesca's Bio: Francesca Favarò is the Lead for the Safety Best Practices team at Waymo, where she coordinates external engagement with standards developing organizations. Prior to joining Waymo in 2020, she was an Associate Professor at San Jose State University's Department of Aviation and Technology and a Research Associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute. Francesca earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech, and received her M.S. in Space Engineering and B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. About Waymo: Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy for people and things to get where they're going. Since our start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has been focused on building, deploying, and commercializing the World's Most Experienced Driver™ technology to improve the world's access to mobility while saving thousands of lives now lost to traffic crashes. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, the world's first fully autonomous ride-hailing service, as well as Waymo Via, our trucking and local delivery service. To date, Waymo has autonomously driven tens of millions of miles on public roads and tens of billions of miles in simulation, across 13+ U.S. states Future of Mobility: The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, effective, and accessible mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields. linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/ brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

Graham Doorley is CEO of Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies (Solo AVT), who is revolutionizing the freight transportation industry by bringing to market the first clean-sheet, battery-electric heavy truck. Key topics in this conversation include: Why Graham wanted to create Solo AVT The potential for a 500+ mile battery electric truck The complexity of adding automated driving to a conventional trucking platform The benefit of building an electrified trucking platform from scratch Solo AVT's vision for the future Links: Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/grahamdoorley https://soloavt.com/ https://twitter.com/SoloAVT https://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamdoorley/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/solo-avt/ Graham's Bio Graham Doorley is a life-long car enthusiast and an entrepreneurial engineer with experience working at future-looking transportation startups like Tesla and Waymo. Graham has eight years of experience as a senior engineer for self-driving systems as part of both Google's self-driving car program and then at Waymo. While at Waymo, Graham was a project lead on the self-driving truck project, starting it with a small inhouse team before it grew into the Waymo Via platform. At Tesla, Graham was responsible for the design, engineering, production, and sourcing of the entire front and rear suspension of the ground-breaking Model S. About Solo AVT Solo Advanced Vehicle Technologies (Solo AVT) is revolutionizing the freight transportation industry by bringing to market the first clean-sheet, battery-electric heavy truck to truly decarbonize the future of freight. Boasting over 500 miles of range as an all-electric vehicle, compatible with any autonomous driving software, and offered via a Truck-as-a-Service model, Solo AVT's hardware and software solutions are designed to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and improve safety. Solo AVT was founded in 2021, built by alumni from Waymo, Tesla, BMW, Ford, Faraday Futures, Rivian, and more, and backed by leading investors including Trucks VC, Maniv Mobility, and Wireframe Ventures. Follow @SoloAVT on Twitter and LinkedIn. Future of Mobility: The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, effective, and accessible mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields. linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/ brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/ Edison Manufacturing: At Edison Manufacturing, our specialty is building and assembling highly complex mobility products in annual quantities of ten to tens of thousands utilizing an agile, robust, and capital-light approach.

David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg and Author of Charging Ahead, General Motors, Mary Bara, and the Reinvention of an American Icon joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss market consolidation in the electric and autonomous vehicle markets along with his new book.The conversation begins with David sharing his thoughts on market consolidation in the autonomous vehicle market and who he thinks could potentially be acquired.Not all of these companies have to sell right now, but if capital markets stay as tight as they are, I think you are going to see a lot of action there. – David WelchOn the electric vehicle side of the equation, EV start-ups are having a hard time raising cash and when they successful raise capital, the capital is expensive. Some of the EV companies are spreading themselves too thin by focusing on multiple markets instead of having a a singular focus on developing a great electric vehicle. A subset of the electric vehicle market that is becoming over saturated is the last-mile electric van delivery market as GM scales BrightDrop and Ford scales their E-Transit van.Anyone trying to get into this business, including Rivian, they are going to have a tough time because Ford and GM not only have vans that are already being built, they have the industrial prowess and the factories to make a big go of it. – David WelchOutside of the electrification of vans, GM has made several savvy moves by acquiring Cruise and Marain among other all the while preparing for the future of mobility which will be on-demand, electric and autonomous. From an economics standpoint, GM is funding Cruise to the tune of $1 billion a year and Ford and VW are investing significant funds into Argo each and every year. The big question is, how long will GM continue to fund Cruise and how long will Ford/VW continue to fund Argo? David shares his thoughts on what the future could hold for Cruise and Argo and when GM and Ford will further tap outside investors and/or spin out the divisions once they start generating significant revenue. Waymo similar to Cruise is generating revenue from their robo-taxi business in addition to their Waymo Via trucking logistics business. Grayson asks David: what will it take and when does he think Alphabet will have their Amazon AWS moment and breakout Waymo earnings for the first time? I do not know if it's monetary or has a number on it, I think it's more a strategic thing. – David WelchWhile this will be a strategic decision, the bigger question at present time, do the autonomous vehicle companies have the right executive leadership to commercialize, scale and eventually run a profitable business? Grayson and David discuss the current state of management talent and why Cruise's competitive commercial advantage could be the executives who joined from Delta and Southwest.Commercializing an AV company to running a profitable AV company requires a different set of management skills. While management will play a key role, a larger question is; will the robo-taxi business ever be profitable in it's current state? This is not a high-margin business. It's just one that they can do and has the potential to get very big in terms of revenue. – David WelchLooking at different commercial models, do we get to the point where one of the large AV developers pivots from operating a robo-taxi business to operating a licensing business? Possibly. I think there is a business there. – David WelchBased on the way Waymo is currently structured and being owned by a large technology company instead of an auto manufacturer, it's a possibility. Grayson offers that the service could be called Waymo Drive and offered as a monthly add-on option for JLR vehicles. The core software would run on Google Cloud, leading to increased revenue in a division that is under Wall Street pressure to gain more marketshare. Or there is Walmart which is currently battling high-inflation make a move to acquire an autonomous trucking company with the long-term goal of lowering operating expenses? Grayson and David discuss as Walmart kicked the tires on acquiring Zoox prior to Amazon buying the company. Would Walmart consider acquiring Gatik?I do not think they are going to want to necessarily own these assets if they do not have to, they just need the benefits of it. – David WelchStaying on the topic of Wall Street, could SoftBank which is the second largest shareholder of Aurora with an 11.8% stake, force the company to split in two by merging the trucking side of the business with Uber Freight of which they are a 3.18% owner (of Uber) and possibly selling the car side of the business to Toyota which owns 6.72% of Aurora? Grayson and David discuss if this is possible and would it create long-term shareholder value?Or could a U.S. Class 1 Railroad make a move and look to acquire an autonomous trucking to expand their railroad operations by connecting the trains to autonomous trucks? The big question again is, does a U.S. Class 1 Railroad they have to own the company?The only reason railroad or anybody buys this is if It looks like they can no longer get access to the technology they need to work this into some sort of intermodal system. – David WelchWrapping up the conversation, David discusses his new book Charging Ahead, General Motors, Mary Bara, and the Reinvention of an American Icon.Recorded on Thursday, August 11, 2022Follow The Road To Autonomy on Apple Podcasts Follow The Road To Autonomy on TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the next two to five years,  A number of American motorists may encounter a self-driving big rig truck next to them on the Interstate.  Truck tech companies like TuSimple and Aurora have been working with UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service to develop, test and evaluate autonomous trucking in the Southwestern US - mainly between Dallas and Phoenix.   As you may expect, the move to autonomous trucking is being driving by economics - a growing truck driver shortage and high diesel fuel prices.   As they say, the future is now. 

We review the Ford Escape plug-in hybrid SUV; introduce you to the world's largest car manufacturer (its not who you think!) and discuss the coming reality of autonomous big rig trucks. 

Drago Anguelov is a Distinguished Scientist and Head of Research at Waymo, an autonomous driving technology company and subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. We begin by discussing Drago's work on the original Inception architecture, winner of the 2014 ImageNet challenge and introduction of the inception module. Then, we explore milestones and current trends in autonomous driving, from Waymo's release of the Open Dataset to the trade-offs between modular and end-to-end systems. Drago also shares his thoughts on finding rare examples, and the challenges of creating scalable and robust systems. Show notes (transcript and links): http://wandb.me/gd-drago-anguelov --- ⏳ Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:45 The story behind the Inception architecture 13:51 Trends and milestones in autonomous vehicles 23:52 The challenges of scalability and simulation 30:19 Why LiDar and mapping are useful 35:31 Waymo Via and autonomous trucking 37:31 Robustness and unsupervised domain adaptation 40:44 Why Waymo released the Waymo Open Dataset 49:02 The domain gap between simulation and the real world 56:40 Finding rare examples 1:04:34 The challenges of production requirements 1:08:36 Outro --- Connect with Drago & Waymo

Uber Freight, branche de transport de marchandises de l'entreprise de VTC, et Waymo Via, filiale d'Alphabet spécialisée dans la conduite autonome, ont annoncé, le 7 juin, un partenariat. Cette association devrait permettre une amélioration des conditions de travail des chauffeurs routiers au sein du marché de la logistique de fret.Lire l'article sur Siècle Digital. Voir Acast.com/privacy pour les informations sur la vie privée et l'opt-out.

Uber Freight and Waymo Via have entered into a partnership that aims to integrate Uber's freight marketplace with Waymo's automated truck technology, the companies announced June 7. The businesses plan to blend their products and collaborate on development of tools and infrastructure to advance deployment of autonomous trucks for Uber Freight's shipper and carrier customers. Waymo also intends to reserve billions of miles of its goods-only capacity for the Uber Freight network as part of the long-term agreement.

Uber Freight and Waymo Via have entered into a partnership that aims to integrate Uber's freight marketplace with Waymo's automated truck technology, the companies announced June 7. The businesses plan to blend their products and collaborate on development of tools and infrastructure to advance deployment of autonomous trucks for Uber Freight's shipper and carrier customers. Waymo also intends to reserve billions of miles of its goods-only capacity for the Uber Freight network as part of the long-term agreement.

Charlie Jatt, Head of Commercialization for Trucking, Waymo, joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss commercializing and scaling Waymo Via.The conversation begins with Charlie discussing why Waymo entered the autonomous trucking industry.The philosophy and the theory of our technology was we're building a driver and that driver can be used for lots of different applications, different types of vehicles. The mission of the company was always to build that technology in a way that could be applied to many different exciting use cases.It has always been on our roadmap to explore diverse applications and trucking and logistics is a huge one of those. In 2017, when we then put our first autonomous truck on the road it was the right time for us to put that theory to test. – Charlie JattAs Waymo scales up autonomous trucking operations on public roads, Charlie talks about how Waymo builds public trust with the local community, law enforcement, and first responders. Waymo is also building trust with the professional truck driver community by engaging with them and learning from their millions of miles of on-road experience.Drivers play a very critical role for us and it is going to be a partnership between autonomous technology and professional truck drivers for many years to come. – Charlie JattShifting the conversation to commercialization and economics, Grayson and Charlie discuss autonomous trucking and its potential impact to help reduce inflation which is currently at a 40-year high.There is a huge opportunity for autonomous trucking to increase efficiencies in the supply chain, reduce blockages in the supply chain, reduce costs and prices in the supply chain. – Charlie JattWith the driver shortage, growth of e-commerce, and a strained global supply chain, the opportunity for autonomous trucking is only growing. With this growing opportunity, Grayson asks Charlie what role market conditions play as Waymo moves further towards commercialization.They don't necessarily play a big role in our strategic decision-making process because the time scale that we're talking about bringing the Waymo Via technology to market, kind of sits above some of those year-over-year changes in market conditions. – Charlie JattWhile market conditions can be volatile, trends tend to gain traction and grow over years. One of those trends is ESG. ESG seemingly comes up in every conversation as companies are fully committed to the trend. One of those companies is J.B. Hunt, which has gone from pilot to a long-term commercial agreement with Waymo.Charlie pulls back the curtain and tells the story of how the partnership with J.B. Hunt evolved from a pilot to Waymo's first fully autonomous customer through an alliance that consists of four main components.As Waymo Via scales, the company will not become a trucking company and operate its own fleet. Waymo will be commercialized as a Driver-as-a-Service model partly through partnerships with Daimler Trucks and Ryder.Wrapping up the conversation, Charlie shares his views on how he sees the autonomous trucking industry evolving over the next 10 years.Recorded on Tuesday, March 15, 2021.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Reilly Brennan, General Partner, Trucks VC joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss investing in the future.The conversation begins with Reilly and Grayson discussing what is going to happen when consolidation begins in the autonomous vehicle industry.This is a period of consolidation because you have essentially a lot of the robo-taxi ideas turned into commercial applications, probably around logistics and parcels. – Reilly BrennanThen there are the startups such as Bear Flag Robotics (acquired by John Deere – August 2021) and Gatik that have been focused on specific applications since day one. Shifting the conversation to industrial use cases, Grayson asks Reilly what his thoughts are on the industrial market as it relates to autonomy.One of those specific industrial markets is mining. With global mining companies hitting record profits and Rio Tinto recently announcing a $7.7 billion half-year dividend, Grayson asks Reilly if a global mining company could potentially acquire an autonomy startup.No doubt. Electrification and AV to those specific players is as much on their mind as the way you would think about DHL, UPS, Amazon, etc adding autonomy and electrification to theirs. It's just a component of how they make money or will make more money in the future. – Reilly BrennanThere is a growing segment of the startup market has is beginning to focus on the opportunities in the industrial market. One aspect of the startup industrial market that is booming is the autonomous trucking industry.The autonomous trucking industry is generating revenue and shoring up the supply chain through automation, as consumers battle ever-increasing inflation. Reilly rightly points out that this industry is heavily dependent on partnerships to scale and return capital to shareholders and investors.One of the key partnerships in the future will be railroads. Grayson makes a prediction that in the next 18 to 24 months, a railroad will buy an autonomous trucking company.Another segment of the industrial market is maritime. Looking at investment opportunities in the space, Reilly is currently studying hydrography and shipping routes. There is an emerging opportunity to map waterways which will increase shipping efficiencies.The depths within ports can change so much that it impacts how much payload you can take. – Reilly BrennanAs maritime shipping routes get optimized, it's time to allow autonomous trucks to enter and operate at ports.The partnership dynamics of autonomous trucking is arguably one of the most important parts of the business. In fact, we have seen some of the logistics companies take investments from entities that own or have access to those ports for that specific reason.It's a fundamental question that there is not any one company, even Waymo that can lay claim to a leadership position for those specific pickup points. That is a big opportunity and in fact, it's probably more important than saying you are running 10,000 trips a day on this route in Texas.If someone came to us and said if I secured the access to these specific vital ports in the United States, I think that is actually saying something a great deal.– Reilly BrennanStaying on the topic of Waymo, Grayson asks Reilly if Waymo will eventually split into two separate companies: Waymo Via focused on autonomous trucking and Waymo One focused on autonomous vehicles.It has always been a question in my mind whether we were at the point in this area of autonomy where you could have a multi-silhouette autonomy company. – Reilly BrennanIs Waymo the only company that could pull off a multi-silhouette approach to autonomy, because of Alphabet's continued long-term financing commitment? It looks that way as Aurora has seemingly shifted a majority of its focus to autonomous trucking.For companies that don't have a Google as a supporter and an investor, I think you probably have to pick one thing you are world-class in. – Reilly BrennanWithout an Alphabet-like financing partner, does Aurora get to a crossroads where they decide to sell off their autonomous vehicle division and focus solely on trucking? It's a possibility as the autonomous vehicle market is beginning to consolidate around Argo AI, Cruise, and Waymo.Then there is May Mobility which is focused on structured routes. Pick-up and drop-offs from airports are a huge opportunity that the autonomous vehicle industry is currently not exploiting. The true opportunity for airports and AVs is in resort towns with limited traffic and high-amounts of passenger traffic during predefined periods of time throughout the year.Looking at the overall investment landscape, Reilly shares a story and his insights into how the team at Trucks VC uncovers potential investment opportunities.When we look at companies, we tend to not really look for ideas, we kind of just wait for great founders to reveal something to us and then we get onboard. – Reilly BrennanWrapping up the conversation, Reilly and Grayson discuss the circular economy and the future of electric vehicles.Recorded on Tuesday, March 1, 2021.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Waymo Via, Waymo's autonomous trucking and cargo unit, has found another long-term strategic partner to see it through to commercialization.

Logistics giant C.H. Robinson is collaborating with Waymo to introduce autonomous trucks into its freight network, starting with multiple pilots in Texas. Waymo's autonomous trucking division, Waymo Via, will use its test fleet of self-driving Class 8 tractors to haul freight between Dallas and Houston for C.H. Robinson customers, the companies announced Feb. 16. C.H. Robinson and Waymo plan to work together on the broader goal of shaping and accelerating the development of autonomous driving technology in the freight transportation industry.

Destaque às mais recentes inovações e movimentos estratégicos da Waymo, Apple e Shopify e JD. Waymo assina contrato para tornar camiões autoguiadosAppleTV+ vai incluir conteúdos em direto?Gigantes de e-commerce Shopify e JD fazem parceriaSaiba mais sobre inovação e nova economia em supertoast.pt.

On this episode of The Rebound, Charlie Jatt, head of commercialization for trucking at Waymo Via, brings us up to speed on developments in technology for autonomous trucking, and when we might see autonomous trucks on the road. ASCM CEO Abe Eshkenazi and SCMR Editorial Director Bob Trebilcock are hosts.

Autonomous truck developer Waymo Via announced plans to build a 9-acre facility near Dallas that will serve as a regional hub for advancing operations and service for automated Class 8 trucks. The facility will be Waymo's central launch point in the southwest U.S. for testing with its carrier partners, the company said. Waymo also announced a partnership with Ryder System Inc. for fleet management services. The two companies said they will partner on servicing and evolving maintenance practices for autonomously driven trucks.

Alan Ohnsman, Senior Editor, Forbes joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the public mobility markets. From SPACs to Tesla to traditional IPOs, Grayson and Alan discuss the current state of the public mobility markets, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and autonomous trucking.The conversation begins with Alan and Grayson discussing the current state of the SPAC market.SPAC activity in both the EV and AV space is just astonishing. I think there is an increasing concern about the quality of some of these offerings. Not all companies are created equal. Not all startups are the same. – Alan OhnsmanAs the SPAC market matures and companies begin the process of de-spacing, issues around the business models and the strength of the balance sheet are being to come into question. A major issue with SPACs is the lack of disclosure as compared to a traditional IPO. We are seeing this very issue play out today with Lordstown Motors as they are under investigation by the Department of Justice over the pre-order numbers of their vehicles.Alan points out the lack of disclosures will lead to increased regulation.The amount of investor litigation aimed at some of these companies is going to be high. I think it's inevitable that the regulator is going to step in and say slow your roll. We really need to vet these a little more carefully and set some better ground rules. – Alan OhnsmanTesla which went public in 2010 continues to dominate the public electric vehicle market while capturing the public's imagination.There is going to be so much competition in the EV space that Telsa has a first-mover advantage. The brand is well established. It is clearly popular in many markets. – Alan OhnsmanWhile Tesla is dominating the electric vehicle market today, Toyota is well poised to gain market share in the future. As the economics of electric vehicles improve and electric vehicle charging becomes more readily available, the market is going to change as Toyota and Hyundai move into the market.With the lack of electric vehicle charging around the United States, Grayson raises the point that hybrid vehicles will become the dominant vehicle type sold over the next 10 years. This is where Toyota wins as they are the clear leader in hybrid technology. Until we achieve ubiquitous electric vehicle charging, consumers will be unsure about adopting and embracing EVs.Ubiquitous charging. It has to be everywhere and people have to know where it is. It has to be a no-brainer. – Alan OhnsmanShifting the conversation back to autonomous vehicles, Grayson asks Alan about the Aurora SPAC and specifically highlights one of the risk factors in the investor presentation:We operate in a highly competitive market and some market participants have substantially greater resources. If one or more of our competitors commercialize their self-driving technology before we do, develop superior technology, or are perceived to have better technology, it could materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition, and results of operations.This risk factor is a clear reference to Waymo, which continues to raise billions of dollars.The amount of funding for [autonomous vehicles] is enormous. Just astonishing. – Alan OhnsmanBoth Aurora and Waymo are focused on developing a universal driver which can drive a robo-taxi and an autonomous truck. As Aurora begins life as a public company, investors and analysts could begin to question the universal driver approach due to economics and the business model.The same can be said for Waymo if and when Alphabet spins out Waymo as a publicly-traded company. If this was to happen, investors would have the opportunity to invest in a pure-play. Waymo for the robo-taxi market and Waymo Via for the logistics market.The money maker in the near term certainly is going to be trucking and logistics. No question about it. That is going to be where everyone makes their money at the outset. – Alan OhnsmanWith the iShares US Transportation ETF ($IYT) having returned 15.16% YTD (as of Monday, July 19, 2021), Grayson asks Alan when will we see an autonomous trucking company added to the index. Alan believes by 2023 we will start to see autonomous trucking companies added to the index. Those companies could be TuSimple and Waymo.Staying on the 2023 theme, Alan discusses why this could be the year that autonomous trucking becomes a two-horse race between TuSimple and Waymo. With TuSimple and Waymo's growing fleets of autonomous trucks, the companies are well poised for the future.Fielding an ever-larger fleet is important. You can do a lot on modeling in computer simulation, but having physical fleets and getting real-world data day-in and day-out, it's really hard to substitute that. – Alan OhnsmanWhile fielding an ever-larger fleet is critically important, having real-world experience and hiring individuals from the trucking industry is also one of the keys to success. Another key is understanding the global supply chain and the impact that the driver shortage is having on the global economy.The habits of consumers are shifting to e-commerce as Adobe is projecting that global e-commerce sales will reach $4.2 trillion this year. As consumers shift their habits to ordering online, this creates new opportunities for companies to serve the growing demand for the delivery of goods. Uber's EATS business is booming as the business is now a $50 billion business.You want to go where the money is. – Alan OhnsmanThis raises the question of, does Uber one day shut down the passenger ride business to focus solely on delivery and logistics? It's an interesting question with a lot of what if's. But one thing is for certain, Dara Khosrowshahi will make the hard decisions that ultimately benefit the business. What we do know today is that the consumer appetite for delivery is only going to grow.Wrapping up the conversation, Grayson and Alan discuss the 2028 Summer Olympics and what the transportation network will look like in Los Angeles.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Destaque às mais recentes inovações e movimentos estratégicos do Facebook, Waymo e Netflix.Facebook compra estúdio de jogos de realidade virtualWaymo capta investimento de 2.5mM de dólaresNetflix lança loja online para venda de merchandiseSaiba mais sobre inovação e nova economia em supertoast.pt.  

J.B. Hunt has partnered with autonomous vehicle developer Waymo to move freight with self-driving trucks in Texas. Through the limited program, Waymo's autonomous trucking unit, Waymo Via, will move loads between facilities in Houston and Fort Worth. That's a distance of more than 250 miles. Waymo's Class 8 trucks will drive autonomously on the freight runs, but they also will have two specialists on board. One will be a commercially licensed driver. The other will be a software technician.

J.B. Hunt has partnered with autonomous vehicle developer Waymo to move freight with self-driving trucks in Texas. Through the limited program, Waymo's autonomous trucking unit, Waymo Via, will move loads between facilities in Houston and Fort Worth. That's a distance of more than 250 miles. Waymo's Class 8 trucks will drive autonomously on the freight runs, but they also will have two specialists on board. One will be a commercially licensed driver. The other will be a software technician.

Removing the driver from behind the wheel of an autonomous truck is the ultimate goal of a nascent industry with at least a half dozen contenders.. Which company gets there first is less important that keeping an 80,000-pound robot truck operating safely. Waymo Via product manager Shai Ben Nun shares his thoughts on what needs to happen.Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts

Removing the driver from behind the wheel of an autonomous truck is the ultimate goal of a nascent industry with at least a half dozen contenders.. Which company gets there first is less important that keeping an 80,000-pound robot truck operating safely. Waymo Via product manager Shai Ben Nun shares his thoughts on what needs to happen.Apple PodcastSpotifyMore FreightWaves Podcasts

Alvaro Ramis, VP of Business Development and Alliances, Bestmile joins Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why robotaxis are the Shangri-La of mobility.The conversation begins with Alvaro talking about his career which started in banking and later the travel industry, before joining the mobility industry. Throughout his career, Alvaro has always had a focus on innovation.My background is someone who feels extremely comfortable with uncertainty. – Alvaro RamisStaying on the theme of being extremely comfortable with uncertainty, Alvaro joined Car2Go in 2014 as Chief Marketing Officer. When he first tried a free-floating car-share service, Alvaro thought the following:It was that moment when I opened that car with my app that the lights turned on. I walked into the vehicle and the panel told me hello with my name. I was like man, this is the future. I fell in love. – Alvaro RamisBringing this conversation full circle, Grayson asks Alvaro about the current state of free-floating car sharing. The market is stagnating due to competition from Uber and Lyft and the inherent asset-heavy business model.Staying on the topic of asset-heavy business models, Grayson and Alvaro discuss who is going to own the autonomous vehicles on their balance sheet. Will it be the banks? Will it be rental car companies?Alvaro go into discussing who will “go to school” to learn the model of asset-heavy mobility as the industry and venture capital firms continue to focus on asset-light companies. Without the asset, there is no mobility service.The future of mobility is about electric, shared, and autonomous. – Alvaro RamisWhile the future may be electric, shared, and autonomous, it has to be profitable. As autonomous mobility companies continue to focus on the robotaxi business, they are starting to diversify into trucking as there is a clear path to revenue and profitability.Waymo has their Waymo Via service which is focused on the delivery of goods and Aurora is now expanding into self-driving trucks. Both Waymo and Aurora were solely focused on the robotaxi market until the path to revenue and profitability was marginalized for the short-term.The end game is the robotaxi. That is the big prize. That is the Shangri-La of mobility. It's the biggest market by a lot. – Alvaro RamisIs there a path to profitability in the robotaxi business? With highly indebted businesses, Alvaro makes the comparison to the telecommunications industry.Grayson agrees with the comparison, but he states the case that the robotaxi business will not spit-off nearly as much cash as the AT&Ts and Verizons of the world. Robotaxi companies will not be able to pay a 4%+ dividend.However, the Beeps and Voyages of the world which operate in controlled environments with captive audiences will be able to generate large amounts of cash and eventually become extremely profitable.Once you have an enclosed environment, you can add more services around it. Also, you are not fighting for that customer in a similar environment that you would have in a traditional ride-hailing market where you would have to buy the supply and demand which is a race to the bottom. – Alvaro RamisAutonomous vehicle companies operating in these environments will not face the same customer acquisition costs as the robotaxi business.However, a majority of autonomous vehicle start-up founders are still attracted to Shangri-La, while Oliver Cameron, CEO of Voyage is instead focused on the riches in niches business model.Building upon the business model conversation, Grayson asks Alvaro about the current state of autonomy in Europe. Europe is behind the United States in terms of funding, deployments, partnerships, and legislation.To operate an SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicle in Europe today, companies have to apply for an exemption. This process is cumbersome and challenging with national security issues playing a large role.National Security is a huge issue for the deployment of autonomous vehicles. Grayson and Alvaro go on to have an in-depth conversation about national security and what has to be done to ensure that remote operations of AVs are secure.You cannot allow artificial intelligence or autonomous vehicles to decide where to go when a terrorist attack happens in a city. – Alvaro RamisThe issue of terrorism and the potential of a terrorist attack is very real and it is an issue that the autonomous vehicle industry needs to plan for as they build out their remote operations. As part of VW's autonomous vehicle deployment for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Government required remote operations in case of a potential incident.Closing out the conversation, Grayson and Alvaro discuss the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles in China.Shangri-La is not technology per se, its the problems that it solves. – Alvaro RamisSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg joins Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the mobility SPAC market.The conversation begins with David sharing his thoughts on the current state of the mobility SPAC market. He brings up the valid point of who is conducting the scouting and due diligence on the deals.Grayson then asks David about the supposed due diligence that Steve Girsky's VectoIQ Acquisition Corp. did prior to merging with Nikola and taking the company public via a SPAC transaction. Building upon that conversation, David talks about the in-progress Nikola / GM deal that has yet to close.Expanding upon the conversation around Nikola and GM, Grayson asks David if Nikola would even have made it through a traditional IPO. David does not think Nikola would have made it through a traditional IPO process.David suggests that GM originally did the deal with Nikola because the company had a hot stock at the time. Was the Nikola stock craze driven by retail investors on Robinhood? Perhaps, but we do not know.Now SoftBank and Apollo Global Management have announced that are launching SPACs.Real money is getting into the game. To me, that is a good sign. Those guys are professionals who invested in everything from publicly traded stocks already to startups and other private players.They have made a lot of money so it's more clear that they know how to do due diligence.It's a better bet than the more well-known SPACs that are out there. – David WelchCould this be a trend of blue-chip investment companies investing in less-risky electric mobility companies? BlackRock has invested billions in Rivian and Arrival. Both companies are being deemed less-risky than other mobility start-ups by the market. Rivian also has backing from Amazon.Staying on the Amazon theme, Grayson and David discuss Amazon and mobility. What are the plans for Zoox? Will Amazon end up acquiring Rivian? Does Amazon introduce a mobility Prime service in the future powered by Zoox?Amazon could have their own competitor to Uber and Lyft with Zoox controlled self-driving vehicles. – David WelchBut who wants to own and manage the fleet? Does someone buy Hertz out of bankruptcy to carve out an autonomous vehicle management business? Or does Penske expand outside of trucks into autonomous vehicles?Rounding out the fleet management conversation, Grayson asks David to share his thoughts on the Great Pivot from Self-Driving Cars to Self-Driving Trucks. The two discuss the economics of self-driving trucks and how the business has a path to profitability.Did this path to profitability, impact Waymo's decision to introduce self-driving trucks as the Waymo Via service? Grayson and David discuss Alphabet's appetite to continue investing in Waymo without revenue.When Alphabet breaks out Waymo revenue for the first time, it will have a positive impact on Alphabet's stock price. One just has to look to the time when Amazon broke out AWS (Amazon Web Services) revenue and the impact the revenue breakout had on Amazon's stock.While Waymo is developing the Waymo Driver, Embark, Kodiak, and TuSimple have been focused solely on trucking from day one. Does this give them a competitive advantage? Perhaps.Grayson and David go on to discuss the Universal Driver debate and how developing autonomous technologies for trucks operating on highways is different than developing the tech for dense urban environments such as San Francisco.Staying on the theme of companies that are developing the Universal Driver, Grayson and David discuss Aurora and their many pivots. The two discuss Aurora's business model and their seemingly never-ending stream of partnerships with no commercially viable products. Evolving into a larger discussion, the two discuss the need for partnerships in the autonomous vehicle industry.Closing out the conversation, Grayson asks David when Tata Motors will make a move and introduce self-driving Jaguars and Land Rover Range Rovers through a partnership with an autonomous vehicle company.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.